The Immersive Wire - 8 August 2021 (Sunday edition)

SUNDAY READ EDITIONCurated VR/AR analysis every Wednesday and Sunday 

// 8 August 2021

S, the SubSPAC is worth a look. As someone who dabbles in stocks, its good to know whats coming up.

Help shape the future of philanthropy

Let's talk about how Google contemplated buying Epic Games.

We'll touch on how this related to immersive soon, but I've been following this story closely for some time. Epic Games is challenging both Apple and Google for the same reason: repressing competition while maintaining monopolistic positions, c

laiming a 30 per cent cut of in-store purchases. This is Epic's description of the situation, via

The Verge: 

• 'Google has gone so far as to share its monopoly profits with business partners to secure their agreement to fence out competition, has developed a series of internal projects to address the “contagion” it perceived from efforts by Epic and others to offer consumers and developers competitive alternatives, and has even contemplated buying some or all of Epic to squelch this threat.'

Google denied the claims, citing the necessity of safety standards; again from The Verge: 

• 'The open Android ecosystem lets developers distribute apps through multiple app stores. For game developers who choose to use the Play Store, we have consistent policies that are fair to developers and keep the store safe for users.'

In my opinion, 30 per cent is too high.

Imagine that close to a third of your revenue is directed to another company, cutting into your profits and making it harder to grow. The app stores have also evolved into a necessity for many people and their businesses, similar to the railway networks of 1800s USA; some level of reform is needed to ensure there is fairness for new businesses that arrive into the world. 

On the one hand, it could be a play to rile up antitrust regulators.

Remember, Tim Sweeney holds a controlling stake at Epic Games, and it's unlikely that Google could orchestrate any sort of aggressive takeover. So the emphasis on the takeover could be Epic's way of positioning itself against Google, rather than any actual threat in the past. 

We don't fully know the details of the acquisition discussions.

We can spitball on the reasons, but the fact of the matter is that the details remain a secret.  But I raise it today because it comes at a time where people are exploring the metaverse and ensuring it isn't dominated by just one company. While Google hasn't announced any plans to enter the metaverse race, Apple is certainly one that can dip its toes in and create a white-walled garden of an Apple ecosystem metaverse. And while a few people might want that, I would much rather have an interoperable world where companies can fairly compete, rather than being priced out by the systems they run on. I might be idealistic, but I don't want to allow a framework for monopolistic practices baked into future worlds. 

Share

Personally, I would like them both to build a Robot Wars scenario where they slug it out via combat. Photo credit: The Esports Observer. 

No sponsor this week, so I wanted to dedicate the space to a good cause. In this case, it is Founders Pledge; a global community finding and funding solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. It's a good initiative, so

consider donating. 

If you wish to sponsor the next edition, reply to this email and let's chat. 

Carole Baskin, Founder and CEO of Big Cat Rescue. 

At times, I have to remind myself that technology needs to serve a purpose. After wandering through the weeds of VR/AR innovation for several years, diving into the deep details of the tech, I have to remember that there is no point to its existence unless it helps. So having calls with passionate entrepreneurs grounds me back, and I touch back on why we are so invested in our work.

Recently I spoke to Carole Baskin, the founder and CEO of Big Cat Rescue. After her catapult into the mainstream spotlight via Tiger King, Ms Baskin focused on innovation as she sought how technology can meet her ideas of protecting tigers. Working closely with Doug Fajardo, the CEO of Xennial Digital, the team sought a future where people can interact and see any sort of endangered species without the need for protective enclosures.

On asking her where the technology will go, Ms Baskin explored a frictionless future where people can easily access virtual worlds without harming others. “I want this technology to be so easily accessible to so many people that there is not any demand for seeing a wild cat in a cage or in person.” She acknowledges that there needs to be a lot of steps towards it (she remarked, with a chuckle), but once reached it will really benefit animals as a whole.Read the full piece here. 

Jobs boardBUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, UK. Blend Media is seeking a talented, committed and determined sales executive to generate new leads and repeat business for Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and 3D products, expanding on the company’s already impressive blue-chip client base. Click here for more. FULL STACK DEVELOPER, remote position. Looking for a competent Software Engineer with 4+ years of industry experience to join our dedicated Web development team. This talented individual must have a vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more. SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER (Node.js), remote position. Looking for a competent Senior Software Engineer with 5+ years of industry experience to join our dedicated Web development team.  This talented individual must have a vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more. SENIOR DEVELOPER (VUE.JS), remote Position. Looking for an experienced JavaScript developer who is highly skilled with Vue.js. You will be joining our Web development team to develop and enhance customer facing Web Applications, where you will be responsible for following best practices to produce modular and maintainable code. Click here for more. QA LEAD, remote positions available. Looking for a competent QA Lead with 2+ years of industry experience to join our dedicated QA Team in Waterford.  This talented individual must have a vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more. SENIOR UNITY GAME DEVELOPER, remote position. Looking for a competent Senior Unity Developer to join our team with 5+ years industry experience.  The talented individual must have vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more.  SENIOR PRODUCT OWNER, remote position. Looking for a competent Product Owner. This talented individual must have a vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more. UI DESIGNER, remote position. Looking for a competent UI Designer. This talented individual must have a vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more. UX DESIGNER, remote position. Are you looking for a unique challenge working in virtual & augmented reality with a bleeding-edge technology company? Then read on. Click here for more.-ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN DIGITAL MEDIA, UK. We are looking to appoint a dynamic and adaptable course director for our BA (Hons) in Digital Media to lead and deliver teaching, learning and assessment on the BA Digital Media and steer  its next phase of growth.  As well as a track record of academic leadership you will have extensive practical experience in digital media such as immersive storytelling (AR/VR/XR), modelling and animation, creative media design / production, or web / mobile app design and development. Click here for more.SENIOR IMMERSIVE LEARNING DESIGNER, UK. Make Real is looking to expand our digital learning team with a Senior Immersive Learning Designer. Your role will be to consult with clients in order to create exciting and imaginative design solutions. Your designs will affect behaviour change in order to deliver on specific learning outcomes, while being achievable within a set budget and timeline. Click here for more. SENIOR UNITY DEVELOPER, UK. As a growing and exciting business, we are looking for full-time talented multi-disciplinary Unity developers to join our expert team in central Brighton. Our ideal candidates will have a broad range of technical experience with a proven track record of delivering interactive Virtual & Augmented Reality projects across a range of HMD & mobile hardware. Working as part of our existing team of designers and artists, the roles will primarily involve the delivery of VR/AR projects for our global clients. Click here for more. EU ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE. Avatour is the remote collaboration platform for site meetings. Our cloud service enables full-motion 360° real-time communication, experienced via a web browser or optional VR headset. We are looking for an Account Executive to expand the Avatour business in the European Union. You’ll be initially our only salesperson in the EU, and directly responsible for the expansion and preservation of our customer base in the region. The ideal candidate will have a track record of success selling an Enterprise SaaS product, and experience in customer success as well. Click here for more.BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGERS, UK. VRTUOSO, a rapidly growing and multi-award winning company, is looking for three full-time B2B Sales Managers who are excited about technology advancements, and able to sell to CxO/Director level within enterprise accounts. Click here for more. HEAD OF MARKETING, UK. VRTUOSO, a rapidly growing and multi-award winning company, is looking for a Head of Marketing capable of taking VRtuoso to the next level. We’re looking to make the leap to working with enterprise level companies at scale and we hope you’re the one to help us accomplish this. Click here for more. CHANNEL SALES MANAGER, UK. VRTUOSO, a rapidly growing and multi-award winning company, is looking for a Channel Sales Manager to lead the channel and reseller programmes. The role is primarily responsible for onboarding new partners, serving as the primary liaison for new partners, growing the sales of existing partners, and assisting with sales/marketing initiatives for our reseller channel as a whole. Click here for more. DIRECTOR OF ENGINEERING, UK. VRTUOSO, a rapidly growing and multi-award winning company, is looking for a Director of Engineering to lead our engineering department and help us build, deliver, and maintain the leading VRtuoso Virtual Reality products for the enterprise market. Click here for more. Display your vacancy in front of thousands of talented VR/AR professionals in just a few clicks. Click here for more info.

Refer a friend today

Enjoy the newsletter? Consider sharing it around! Just one referral gives you and the referred a free PDF copy of The Immersive Reality Revolution. Just share the link below, and you get the book. 

Copy and paste your personal referral link to others:

That's all for this week! Want to have a chat, let me know about a news story, or talk business? Either reply to this email, or contact tom (at) virtualperceptions (dot) com. Have an excellent day!